Central Auditory Dysfunction and Alzheimer’s Disease: From External Ear to Cerebral Cortex

• Main Authors: ChiehChiu, 邱捷
• Other Authors: Ming-Chyi Pai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/8bab2d

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 老年學研究所 === 101 === Background: The cause of hearing loss includes peripheral auditory dysfunction, central auditory dysfunction (CAD), attention problems and comprehension problems. Hearing loss can lead to difficulties in daily lives, especially for people with dementia. It was said that hearing loss may be a precursor to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). CAD might happen if the related regions, including temporal, anterior frontal and parietal lobes, are damaged in early stages of AD. Objective: To investigate the performance on central auditory tests by AD patients and cognitive healthy controls (CHC’s), and whether CAD is associated with AD. Methods: All participants were asked to take cognitive screens, peripheral auditory tests, auditory comprehension test, and central auditory tests, including Dichotic Digits Test (DDT) and Dichotic Sentence Identification (DSI). Results: 102 AD patients (32 aged 60-69; 33 aged 70-79; 37 aged 80 and over) and 91 CHC’s (35 aged 60-69; 31 aged 70-79; 25 aged 80 and over) completed the tests. Compared to CHC’s, AD patients scored worse on cognitive screens, peripheral auditory tests, auditory comprehension test, and central auditory tests in all age groups. There was a positive relation between frontal function and CAD tests in AD patients. People with higher scores on DDT and DSI also had less chance to be AD. Conclusion: AD patients scored lower on central auditory tests than CHC’s. Exact Logistic Regression showed significant effect of central auditory tests on AD.